Review: Cork's Cillian Murphy excels in a 5-star classic

They really need no introduction, but Cork actors Cillian Murphy and Eileen Walsh are not only two of the best actors in the country, but also two of the most highly regarded actors in the profession.

They made their name in Enda Walsh’s play Disco Pigs, which premiered with Corcadorca’s production in the late 1990s.

Since then, their careers have grown exponentially but, while the two actors have remained friends, they haven’t worked together until now, with the film adaptation of Claire Keegan’s novella, Small Things Like These. The script is written by their Disco Pigs collaborator, Enda Walsh.

The last adaptation of a Keegan story was the Oscar-nominated An Cailín Ciúin, so there are high hopes for Small Things to equal it.

It is also the first film that Murphy has produced with his new production company.

The film is set in New Ross in the 1980s and follows an ordinary man who can no longer accept the fact that there is a Magdalene Laundry in the town.

In the weeks before Christmas, Bill (Murphy) is busy delivering fuel from his small coal business. He is a hard worker who employs some local men, but fuel is a modest business. He is by no means a wealthy businessman.

Bill is a quiet man who observes everything around him. When he comes home from work, he heads straight to the bathroom to try to scrub the coal dust from his hands. He never quite gets clean.

Dinner is a busy affair. Bill’s daughters giggle and squabble around the table. He doesn’t say much at home either, but his love for his daughters is clear.

Education is important to the family. They get some support from the local church to send the girls to school. Bill’s wife, Eileen (Walsh), runs the house, keeping the home ticking over.

It is a typical 1980s household, with a hard-working family doing their best to survive a time of recession and oppression.

Up the road from the local school stands a convent, home to many unwed young women, none of them there by choice. 

Everyone in the locality knows what happens there, but they stay silent, heads down, ignoring the reality of what is happening under their nose.

Perhaps it is Christmas melancholy, but something has been shaken loose inside Bill. He starts thinking about his childhood and the poverty he experienced growing up.

This leads to thoughts about his mother and the life he once had, which is far different to how his children live. He wakes at night, makes tea, and leaves early for work to clear his thoughts.

As he delivers coal to the convent, he sees a young woman screaming as she is shoved into the arms of the nuns. Bill is shaken to the core.

Later, he comes across a young boy on the road who claims to be looking for his dog, but Bill recognises the pain of poverty and knows that the boy, who comes from a difficult background, is collecting sticks for the fire. Bill offers him a few coins.

Later, Eileen, not unkindly, chides him for being soft-hearted. Eileen loves Bill for his kindness, but too much kindness could be an undoing in such harsh times.

Later, he finds Sarah (Zara Devlin), the girl he saw screaming, locked in a coal shed. She had been there all night. Bill brings the terrified and half-frozen girl to the convent door. By crossing the threshold, he witnesses the terrible conditions the young women are forced to live in.

Bill comes face to face with the Mother Superior, played by an icy Emily Watson, who feels threatened by what Bill knows, but instead of cowering, she uses her fear as a weapon.

If Bill says anything, he risks his children’s education. She has the power to destroy their future.

It leaves Bill with a terrible decision - does he ignore the horrors in the town or risk damaging his family?